The process of printing a motion picture film entails projecting light of varying intensity onto unexposed film stock. In the course of printing a motion picture film, a security code or other type of identifier is often printed onto the film in an effort to uniquely identify each print that is made. The identification of the print enables the motion picture studio that produced the film to track the location of the various film prints, which aids in fighting piracy. In the event piracy occurs, the security code on the pirated film will assist in the identification of the source of the pirated film. In this respect, the code can, among other things, uniquely identify a theater that received the film print for public viewing. Thus, these identifying security codes can provide a studio with information relating to the theater from which the piracy occurred. From such information, the studio can track the piracy patterns and develop and implement theft controls.
One known technique for adding such security codes is the Cap Code technique, which applies a unique pattern of codes to each print. The pattern of codes is repeated every twenty feet (20′) or so throughout each reel of the film. However, this approach appears to have lost its viability due to the increase in compression employed during film making and recording. In addition, this security technique can incur certain disadvantages. For example, the cap code technique has a limit of approximately 2000 unique dot combinations. Further, the image rarely survives capture and compression. Further, and all of the dots added as codes are required in order to decode the print number. In other words, it is not possible to decode a partial pattern.
Recent trends in technology have enabled film pirates to discover the use of such security codes on the film prints. Thus, such pirates constantly attempt to thwart such security codes and subsequent identification of the film source by eliminating them from the reproduced copies.
Thus, a need exists to provide security codes on a film during printing that are undetectable to pirates, and that do not impair the image quality and hence, the viewing experience of viewers. Furthermore, a need exists to provide security codes on film prints that not only uniquely identify each print, but also survive capture and compression to 150 k. Additionally, a need exists to minimize the security code required on the print, as well as to make such codes invisible to the viewing audience and to facilitate decoding, thereby allowing the use of such codes as evidence of piracy.